u  :/  ■  ■ 

CENTENNIAL    PAMPHLET    No.    13 


The  Bible  in  Korea 

OR 

The  Transformation  of  a  Nation 


GEORGE  HEBER  JONES,  D.D. 


AMERICAN  BIBLE   SOCIETY 
NEW  YORK 

1916 


Universal  Bible  Sunday 


The  dominant  thought  and  aim  of  the  Centennial  celebration  of 
the  American  Bible  Society  is  the  exaltation  of  the  Word  of  God. 

In  commemoration  of  the  blessings  which  have  flowed  from  the 
Bible,  and  m  gratitude  for  the  good  hand  of  God  upon  the  Society 
throughout  the  100  years  during  which  it  has  put  forth  and  circu- 
lated the  Scriptures,  and  which  100  years  end  on  the  7th  of  May, 
1916,  it  is  requested  that  that  day  be  observed  as 

UNIVERSAL   BIBLE   SUNDAY 

In  this  observance  churches  of  many  denominations  throughout 
the  United  States  have  indicated  their  intention  to  join.  It  will  also 
be  observed  by  union  meetings  in  large  centers,  and  by  special  exer- 
cises in  Sunday  Schools,  Young  People's  Societies  and  other  church 
organizations  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  great  country. 

As  the  sun  brings  light  that  day  to  our  southern  continent,  there, 
too,  will  be  gathered,  in  observance  of  this  day,  those  who  love  the 
Word  of  God.  Assurances  have  already  been  given  that  in  the  Is- 
lands of  the  Seven  Seas,  in  the  far  Philippines,  in  the  Land  of  the 
Rising  Sun,  in  Bible-loving  Korea,  in  great  seeking  China,  in  Siam 
and  India,  along  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Delta  of  the  Nile,  and 
even  in  war-smitten  Europe,  there  will  be  those  who  will  join  in  this 
grateful  recognition  of  the  blessings  from  The  Book. 

Will  those  who  read  these  lines  all  join  in  the  observance  of  this 
day?     Literature  to  assist  in  such  observance  may  be  had  from 

The  Secretaries,  Bible  House,  Astor  Place,  New  York  City. 


Centennial  History  of  the  Bible  Society 

The  Rev.  Henry  Otis  Dwight,  LL.D.,  the  Recording  Secre- 
tary of  the  Society,  has  for  more  than  a  year  now  been  set  aside 
for  the  one  purpose  of  writing  the  Society's  History.  It  is  a  story 
of  intense  interest  and  intrinsic  value  for  all  who  rejoice  in,  and 
watch  solicitously,  the  growth  and  development  of  our  own  country  or 
the  growth  and  development  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  the  world  over. 

It  will  be  a  volume  of  about  500  pages,  with  illustrations,  and 
will  be  ready  in  March,  1916.  Cloth  bound,  it  will  be  $1;  paper 
bound,  50  cents.  The  .Macmillan  Company  will  publish  it  for  the 
Society.     Orders  or  inquiries  may  be  addressed  to 

The  Secretaries,  Bible  House,  Astor  Place,  New  York  City. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  KOREA 


The  Transformation 
of  a  Nation 


BY 


GEORGE  HEBER  JONES.  D.D.. 

Editorial  Secretary,  Board  of  Foreigrn  MiBaiona 

of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

Twenty-five  Years  Missionary  in  Korea 


AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY 
NEW  YORK 

1916 


A  reprint  from  The  Bible  Magrazine.  October,  1914 


The  Bible  in  Korea 

OR 

The  Transformation  of  a  Nation 


The  Power  of  the  Bible 

KOREA,  in  its  religious  development,  offers  a 
convincing  illustration  of  the  transforming 
power  of  the  Bible.  This  is  indicated  by  the  great 
change  which  has  come  over  popular  opinion  con- 
cerning the  customs  and  ethical  standards  of  the 
people.  Thirty  years  ago  practices  which  were  re- 
garded as  reasonable  in  ethics  and  necessary  to 
social  order  are  to-day  believed  to  be  perverse  and 
injurious. 

Previous  to  the  coming  of  the  ideal  set  forth  by 
the  Bible  the  lower  masses  of  the  people,  who  con- 
stitute more  than  nine-tenths  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion, were  in  a  state  of  economic  peonage  to  the 
higher  classes,  while  it  is  estimated  that  probably 
three  hundred  thousand  were  held  in  actual  slavery. 
Plural  marital  relations,  with  concubinage  on  the 
part  of  those  whose  social  standing  or  wealth  could 
furnish  support,  were  regarded  as  quite  the  proper 
thing.  Marriage  was  entered  upon  at  the  age  of 
twelve  to  fourteen  years,  and  for  a  girl  to  be  un- 
married at  the  age  of  sixteen  was  regarded  as  a 
matter  of  neighborhood  scandal.  Woman  was  re- 
garded as  inferior  to  man,  she  had  few  recognized 
legal  rights,  and  customary  law  required  her  to  be 
in  subjection  that  was  both  real  and  oppressive,  in 
childhood  to  her  father,  in  wifehood  to  her  husband, 
and  in  widowhood  to  her  oldest  son.  One  of  the 
customs  of  the  land  was  the  abduction  of  widows 
and  their  forcible  marriage  to  widowers  who  could 
raise  up  a  party  of  men  sufficiently  strong  to  cap- 

3 


473583 


ture  and  carry  oflE  the  woman.  The  Penal  Code  of 
the  land  prescribed  tortures  of  the  most  fiendish 
character,  while  prisoners  were  subject  to  cruel  and 
inhuman  treatment. 

To-day  these  and  many  other  things  have  passed, 
or  are  passing,  out  of  Korean  life.  The  position 
of  the  common  folk  has  been  materially  improved, 
the  doors  of  education  have  been  opened  up  to 
womanhood,  and  to-day  she  enjoys  both  customary 
and  legal  rights  which  heretofore  were  unknown. 
/-  Among  the  men  of  the  nation  new  ideals  prevail 
I  concerning  veracity,  personal  integrity,  purity  of 
^-  life,  mercifulness,  and  neighborliness.  The  status 
of  the  home  life  and  the  character  of  family  rela- 
tions have  greatly  altered.  The  treatment  of  the 
sick,  which  in  the  old  days  was  marked  by  the  use 
of  many  loathsome  medicines,  superstitious  prac- 
tices, and  sometimes  the  abandonment  of  those 
taken  sick,  has  been  changed  by  the  introduction  of 
modem  medical  practice.  A  new  value  has  been 
placed  upon  the  dignity  of  labor,  leading  to  an  in- 
creased degree  of  thrift,  frugality,  and  prosperity. 

The  fountain  head  from  whence  flowed  the  cur- 
rents of  power  which  have  been  most  instrumental 
in  producing  these  changes  has  been  the  Bible.  In 
Korea  it  has  shown  itself  to  be  not  only  a  social 
dynamic  to  overthrow  that  which  is  wrong,  but  also 
a  constructive  force,  building  up  better  things  in 
the  place  of  those  that  have  been  destroyed. 

The  Threefold  Presence  of  the  Bible 

The  Bible  is  in  Korea  in  a  threefold  sense  : 
(1)  By  the  work  of  translation  it  has  been  intro- 
duced into  the  language  of  the  people  and  has  be- 
''  come  a  formative  force  in  the  development  of  their 
intellectual  life.  There  has  been  an  evangelization 
of  the  language  of  the  people,  as  well  as  of  the  life 
of  the  people.    All  that  has  been  brought  about  in 

the  thought  life  of  other  peoples  by  the  translation 

4 


of  the  Bible  into  their  language  is  being  reproduced 
in  Korea  to-day.  The  boys  and  girls  of  the  nation 
are  coming  into  the  possession  of  moral  and  relig- 
ious knowledge  through  the  presence  of  the  Bible 
in  the  native  language  which  was  denied  to  their 
fathers.  In  the  cultural  development  of  the  Korean 
people  the  Bible  has  been  installed  upon  a  seat  of 
power,  and  from  this  place  of  enthronement  it  can 
never  be  dislodged;  except  as  the  new  fabric  of 
Korean  thought  is  torn  to  pieces  and  destroyed  it 
must,  over  an  ever-widening  range  of  influence, 
continue  to  impose  and  to  deepen  its  impression 
upon  Korean  thought  life  for  all  time  to  come. 

(2)  The  Bible  is  in  Korea  in  a  material  sense. 
The  service  rendered  by  the  Bible  societies,  and  in 
a  very  conspicuous  sense  by  our  own  American 
Bible  Society,  in  giving  the  Scriptures  to  the  Korean 
people  is  immeasurable.  To  give  but  an  incom- 
plete exhibit  of  the  extent  to  which  the  Bible  in  a 
material  way  has  come  into  circulation  in  Korea, 
during  1910  to  1912,  inclusive,  the  total  sales  in 
that  country  were  1,430,491,  including  the  Bible  as 
a  whole  or  in  part.  The  demand  for  this  book 
grows  rather  than  diminishes.  Through  the  cour- 
tesy of  Dr.  W.  I.  Haven,  Corresponding  Secretary, 
I  am  able  to  give  the  circulation  of  the  Korea 
Agency  of  the  American  Bible  Society  for  1914. 
This  shows  a  total  of  458,694  volumes,  including  810 
Bibles  and  Old  Testaments,  7,498  New  Testaments, 
and  450,386  portions,  an  advance  of  281,814  vol- 
umes, which  makes  the  circulation  almost  treble  that 
of  the  preceding  year.  No  other  book  printed  in 
the  Korean  language  anywhere  nearly  approaches 
the  Bible  in  circulation.  Though  I  have  no  exact 
data  at  hand  by  which  to  test  the  fact,  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  circulation  of  the  Bible,  with 
that  of  the  tracts  and  Christian  books  intended  to 
interpret  its  teachings,  is  greater  than  the  combined 
circulation  of  all  other  literature  issued  in  the  Ko- 

5 


rean  tongue.  There  is  much  significance  in  this 
fact,  for  it  is  an  indication  of  the  value  the  Korean 
people  themselves  place  upon  the  Bible  and  Chris- 
tianity. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Bible  is  a  re- 
cent introduction  into  Korea.  It  belongs  to  the 
new  life  of  the  present  generation.  The  history  of 
its  translation  is  of  interest.  The  first  efEort  was 
made  by  Dr.  John  Ross  and  his  associates  of  the 
Scotch  Presbyterian  Mission  in  Manchuria.  About 
the  same  time,  under  the  auspices  of  the  American 
Bible  Society,  the  Gospels  of  Mark  and  Luke  were 
translated  by  Rijutei,  Korean  court  historian,  who 
had  gone  to  Tokyo  in  response  to  an  invitation 
from  the  Japanese  government  to  serve  as  profes- 
sor of  Korean  on  the  faculty  of  the  Imperial  Uni- 
versity. He  also  prepared  a  complete  Chino-Ko- 
rean  New  Testament.  This  latter  with  the  Gospel 
of  Mark  was  published  by  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety in  1883.  These  primitive  versions  had  a  wide 
circulation  and  helped  to  familiarize  the  Koreans 
with  the  fact  of  the  Bible. 

,  These  translations  were  necessarily  imperfect,  so 
that  as  soon  as  missionaries  became  resident  in 
Korea  the  matter  of  Bible  translation  was  taken 
under  advisement.  When  the  little  group  of  pio- 
neer missionaries,  consisting  of  Underwood,  Appen- 
zeller,  Heron,  and  Scranton,  reached  Seoul  one  of 
the  first  things  they  did  was  to  organize  a  Bible 
committee,  which  undertook  the  work  of  translation 
and  of  provision  for  the  circulation  of  the  Word 
among  the  Korean  people.  This  embryonic  or- 
ganization was  further  developed  as  other  mission- 
aries arrived.  The  American  Bible  Society,  the 
British  and  Foreign,  and  the  National  of  Scotland, 
co-operated  very  heartily  with  this  committee  and 
sustained  it  in  its  work  until  the  time  arrived  when 
the  *  Societies  could  open  their  own  Agencies  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  circulation  in  Korea  itself. 

6 


As  soon  as  the  missionaries  acquired  a  working 
knowledge  of  the  language  the  most  facile  in  lin- 
guistic ability  among  them  were  set  apart  for  the 
work  of  translation,  with  the  result  that  to-day  we 
have  the  entire  Bible  in  the  Korean  language.  This 
version  is  largely  the  work  of  James  S.  Gale,  Hor- 
ace G.  Underwood,  and  W.  G.  Reynolds,  whose 
services  in  this  particular  to  the  cause  of  Christianity 
in  Korea  are  of  the  highest  importance.  At  various 
times  they  have  been  assisted  in  this  work  by  Henry 
G.  Appenzeller,  W.  B.  Scranton,  R.  A.  Hardie,  W. 
G.  Cram,  A.  A.  Pieters,  and  others.  It  is  a  notable 
achievement  that  in  a  language  which  thirty  years 
ago  was  unknown  to  the  people  of  Western  lands 
the  Bible  has  been  translated  and  become  the  most 
widely  circulated  piece  of  literature  in  that  lan- 
guage. 

Now  that  the  translation  of  the  entire  Bible  into 
the  Korean  language  has  been  completed,  the  name 
of  the  Board  of  Translators  has  been  changed  by  the 
Bible  Committee  of  Korea  to  the  Board  of  Revisers, 
consisting  of  Drs.  Underwood,  Gale,  and  Reynolds. 
They  are  now  engaged  in  revising  the  proper  names 
of  the  Old  Testament  preparatory  to  a  revision  of  the 
entire  Old  Testament  as  soon  as  the  time  can  be  se- 
cured for  the  work.  They  are  also  working  on  the 
manuscript  of  a  mixed  script  Old  Testament,  which 
will  complete  the  entire  Bible  in  mixed  script. 

The  preparation  of  a  reference  Bible  has  been 
undertaken  by  Mr.  I.  C.  Lee  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Bible  Societies,  which  are  meeting  the  expense 
involved.  The  reference  New  Testament  has  been 
completed,  and  the  work  of  preparing  the  copy  for 
the  references  in  the  Old  Testament  is  under  way. 

(3)  In  the  third  place,  the  Bible  is  present  in  Ko- 
rea in  the  spirit  and  life  of  an  ever-increasing  num- 
ber of  the  Korean  people.     It  is  in  the  hearts  of  the  \ 
Christians ;  they  know  its  message  and  honorr  and  ^ 
value  it.     They  memorize  its  passages  to  a  far 

7 


greater  extent  than  is  the  case  in  America,  and  some 
of  them  can  outquote  even  their  missionary  teach- 
ers. They  are  free  from  doubts  concerning  its  place 
of  supremacy  in  the  Christian  life  and  determine 
their  own  life  latitude  and  longitude  by  the  degree 
to  which  they  are  successful  in  translating  its  truths 
into  conduct. 

The  Korean  church  is  a  Bible-saturated  church. 
It  is  read  and  quoted  at  all  Christian  gatherings. 
No  Korean  minister  would  conduct  a  Christian  serv- 
ice with  a  closed  Bible  on  the  pulpit.  The  Bible 
would  be  there — and  it  would  be  open — significant 
of  the  fact  that  the  Bible  in  the  Korean  church  is  an 
open,  not  a  closed,  book.  It  bulks  very  largely  in 
sermons,  and  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  life  of 
the  church  membership  is  fed  from  the  Bible.  It  is 
a  guiding  force  in  family  worship ;  the  childhood  in 
the  home  of  the  church  members  of  Korea  is  grow- 
ing up  into  young  manhood  and  young  womanhood 
fortified  with  memories  of  the  daily  services  when 
the  Bible  was  opened  and  its  words  reverently  read 
at  the  family  altar. 

The  Korean  church  is  as  yet  free  from  debate 
concerning  the  critical  questions  that  agitate  the 
churches  in  Western  lands.  Whereas  among  us  the 
average  of  our  knowledge  about  the  Bible  is  much 
higher  than  is  the  case  among  the  Koreans,  the 
Koreans,  I  think,  have  a  larger  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  itself,  its  contents,  and  its  direct  teachings. 

Redemption  of  the  Native  Alphabet 
The  literary  vehicle  of  the  Korean  people  was, 
and  is  to  a  certain  extent  even  to-day,  the  Chinese 
idiograph.  All  educated  Koreans  studied  Chinese. 
The  bulk  of  the  native  literature  of  Korea  is  in  the 
Chinese  character.  The  Koreans,  however,  possess 
a  native  alphabetic  script  invented  about  four  cen- 
turies ago  and  known  as  Unmun.  It  consisted  of 
twenty-five  symbols,  or  letters,  easy  to  learn  both 

8 


to  read  and  write  and  admirably  adapted  to  express 
the  Korean  language.  Because  of  the  superior  po- 
sition of  the  Chinese,  which  linked  them  up  with 
the  learned  world  both  in  China  and  Japan,  the 
Korean  literati  looked  upon  this  native  script  with 
disdain,  regarding  it  as  fit  only  for  the  infinitesi- 
mally  small  number  of  women  who  were  permitted 
to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  reading.  It  had  been  a 
practically  abandoned  literary  factor  in  Korean  life 
until  the  coming  of  the  Christian  missionaries. 
They  immediately  discovered  its  value  and  pro- 
ceeded to  put  it  into  use.  The  translation  of  the 
Bible  is  published  in  this  alphabetic  script  and  so  is 
practically  all  the  Christian  literature  of  the  present 
day.  This  mission  of  carrying  the  contents  of  the 
Christian  Bible  out  into  Korean  thought  life  has  re- 
sulted in  the  redemption  of  the  native  script  from 
the  contempt  in  which  the  educated  native  once  held 
it  and  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  three  notable  con- 
tributions of  Christianity  to  Korean  advancement, 
the  other  two  being  the  elevation  of  womanhood 
and  the  bringing  in  of  the  emancipation  of  the  low- 
caste  man. 

The  Chinese  is  not  disregarded,  and  a  translation 
into  what  is  known  as  the  mixed  script  is  being 
prepared.  This  consists  of  a  text  in  the  Chinese 
ideographs  with  the  grammatical  suffixes  and  inflec- 
tions in  the  Korean  script  itself.  During  1912, 
35,000  of  the  Gospel  of  Mark  in  mixed  script  were 
issued,  and  3,230  volumes  of  various  parts  of  the 
Bible  sold.  The  preparation  of  the  Old  Testament 
in  this  mixed  script,  which  was  begun  in  1912,  has 
been  steadily  continued.  The  bulk  of  our  Chris- 
tian publications,  however,  are  in  the  native  script. 
As  the  Korean  language  is  polysyllabic,  the  entire 
Bible  in  the  native  script  makes  a  very  bulky  vol- 
ume and  the  expense  of  publishing  it  is  great,  but 
this  has  been  financed  by  the  Bible  Societies,  our 
own  American  Bible  Society  bearing  its  full  share, 

9 


thus  rendering  a  monumental  service  to  the  up-build- 
ing of  the  Christian  church  among  the  Korean  people. 

Methods  of  Distribution. 

The  missionaries  at  work  in  Korea  are  men  of 
positive  conviction  concerning  the  value  and  im- 
portance of  the  Bible,  and  have  given  a  large  place 
in  their  labors  to  the  work  of  Bible  distribution. 
The  writer  well  remembers  the  day  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  missionary  work  among  the  Koreans  that 
the  definite  policy  of  sowing  the  land  from  end  to 
end  with  the  Bible  was  entered  upon  by  the  mis- 
sionaries then  at  work.  This  policy  has  been  con- 
tinued to  the  present  time,  and  to  this  widespread, 
wisely  directed,  and  diligently  followed  policy  must 
be  attributed  much  of  the  great  harvest  of  the 
present. 

To  accomplish  this  work  the  missionaries  have 
taken  the  oversight  of  Bible  colporteurs  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  Bible  Societies,  this  resulting  in  an  inti- 
mate and  practical  form  of  co-operation  between 
the  main  arm  of  missionary  effort  and  the  great 
auxiliary  forces  of  the  Bible  Societies.  The  ladies 
attached  to  the  various  missi6ns  have  given  much 
time  and  strength  to  the  direction  of  the  activities 
of  Bible-women.  In  the  early  days  a  missionary 
starting  on  a  tour  into  the  interior  would  always 
carry  along  with  him  a  pony  load  of  Gospels  and 
other  portions  of  the  Bible,  as  well  as  various 
other  Christian  books  and  tracts.  He  has  been 
succeeded  now  by  the  native  colporteur.  The  ob- 
ject of  all  colportage  work  is  to  put  the  Scriptures 
into  the  hands  of  the  people,  with  the  ultimate  end 
of  bringing  the  people  to  personal  knowledge  and 
acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  true  Word  of 
God.  The  colporteur  is  a  pioneer,  a  forerunner  of 
those  who  will  come  after  him  and  cultivate  the 
good  work  begun  by  him.  Scores  of  village 
churches  now  in  existence  in  Korea  were  brought 

10 


into  being  by  the  visit  of  the  Bible  colporteur  and 
his  initial  work  of  putting  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of 
the  villagers,  he  working  under  the  direction  of 
some  foreign  missionary. 

To  the  success  of  this  work  personal  testimony 
is  borne  by  members  of  every  one  of  the  missions 
in  Korea,  and  by  such  auxiliary  missions  as  that  of 
the  Salvation  Army.  Speaking  about  the  work  of 
the  American  Bible  Society's  colporteurs,  a  mis- 
sionary says:  **  In  four  district  meetings  definite 
results  were  obtained,  apart  from  the  business 
transacted.  In  one  it  was  souls  won ;  in  another  it 
was  drifting  ones  restored  to  the  joy  of  the  Lord ; 
in  another  men  gave  themselves  unto  the  Lord  for 
life  service.  The  colporteur  is  the  father  of  eight 
churches,  and  has  worn  out  one  New  Testament  and 
rigorously  used  another."  Every  month  these  col- 
porteurs return  to  the  missionary  superintendents, 
reporting  places  opened  to  Christianity  by  their 
visits,  souls  seeking  the  truth  through  the  words  of 
their  testimony,  and  hundreds  of  copies  of  the  Gos- 
pels, the  New  Testament,  and  the  Bible  left  in  the 
homes  and  in  the  villages  to  become  the  means  of 
ever-increasing  harvests. 

This  colportage  work  necessarily  involved  the 
follow-up  work  by  the  evangelist  and  pastor.  Some- 
times the  attack  of  all  three  lines  of  work  is  com- 
bined. "Dynamiting  the  rock"  is  the  way  this 
combined  attack  is  described.  The  following  in- 
stance, related  by  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  well  illustrates  this  : 

**  The  colporteur's  work  is  that  of  pioneer,  pre- 
paring the  way  for  others  to  reap  where  he  has 
sown.  The  Rev.  W.  N.  Blair,  of  the  Presbyterian 
Mission,  writes:  *We  have  been  trying  for  ten 
years  to  start  a  church  in  West  An  Ju  County,  the 
largest  unreached  section  in  my  northern  circuit. 
This  year  I  determined  to  try  dynamite  on  the  rock 
which  has  so  long  withstood  us.     Pastor  Kim  Chan 

11 


Sung  agreed  to  join  two  Bible  Society  colporteurs 
and  myself  in  a  direct  attack  on  this  heathen  fastness 
during  the  last  week  of  November,  1912.  We  sent 
word  to  all  the  Christians  to  pray  for  us,  and  later 
several  other  workers  joined  us.  We  secured  two 
rooms  in  one  of  the  largest  villages,  and  spent  the 
entire  time  for  one  week  praying  together  and 
preaching  from  house  to  house.  At  first  only  a  few 
could  be  persuaded  to  attend  the  night  meetings, 
but  interest  grew  as  the  days  passed,  and  before  we 
left  thirty-three  men,  besides  a  number  of  women 
and  nearly  all  the  boys  in  the  neighborhood,  had 
decided  to  become  Christians. 

The  owner  of  the  house  where  I  lodged  was  a 
gambler,  and  went  oflE  every  evening  with  friends 
to  a  neighboring  saloon.  We  preached  to  him  con- 
tinually, and  he  was  evidently  deeply  impressed 
with  our  words,  but  could  not  break  with  his  old 
habits  and  companions.  On  Thursday,  however,  he 
came  to  me  with  a  radiant  face  and  informed  me 
that  he  had  settled  all  his  gambling  debts,  and  from 
that  time  onward  meant  to  live  as  a  Christian. 
That  night  and  the  next  night  his  old  companions 
tried  hard  to  persuade  him  to  go  with  them  to  the 
saloon ;  we  heard  them  outside  in  the  dark  urging 
him  to  go,  but  his  decision  held.  From  that  day  he 
joined  us  in  our  evening  meetings,  and  before  we 
left  he  offered  his  house  to  hold  services  in  until 
the  new  company  of  believers  could  secure  a  church 
building  for  themselves. 

**  *  To  the  two  Bible  Society  colporteurs  is  due  a 
large  measure  of  the  success  of  this  effort.  They 
preached  and  sold  books  with  untiring  zeal.  The 
success  of  the  West  An  Ju  campaign  encouraged 
us  to  hold  similar  meetings  in  other  parts  of  the 
circuit,  a  colporteur  and  as  many  workers  from 
neighboring  churches  as  were  able  to  join  him 
spending  one  week  preaching  night  and  day  in  a 
district.     In  each  instance  we  have  succeeded  in 

12 


gathering  a  company  of  new  believers,  with  every 
promise  of  establishing  permanent  churches.*  "  < 

It  is  probable  that  during  this  first  generation  an 
average  of  a  Bible,  or  a  portion  of  a  Bible,  for 
every  living  Korean  has  been  sold  or  distributed 
throughout  that  land.  In  connection  with  the  Mil- 
lion Campaign  of  a  few  years  ago  the  chief  cam- 
paign document  which  was  selected  by  the  mission- 
aries and  the  Korean  Christian  leaders  as  the 
most  practical  and  convincing  evangelistic  tract  to 
put  into  the  hands  of  inquirers  was  the  Gospel  of 
Mark,  and  at  least  seven  hundred  thousand  copies 
of  it  were  sold  or  distributed  among  those  who  be- 
came interested  in  the  Christian  faith.  After  all 
this  wide  circulation  of  the  Bible  the  present  shows 
no  diminution  either  in  the  efforts  of  the  Christian 
forces  to  circulate  it  or  in  the  demand  for  it  among 
the  Korean  people  themselves.  It  is  reported  that 
there  is  an  increasing  call  for  the  Scriptures,  espe- 
cially among  the  nation's  non-Christian  constitu- 
ency, and  there  is  a  growing  demand  for  the  Bible 
in  English,  Japanese,  and  Chinese  versions. 

Bible  Study  Amontf  the  Koreans 

The  Korean  church  has  been  marked  by  definite 
methods  of  Bible  study.  These  methods  aim  to 
make  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible  a  part  of  the  mental 
equipment  of  all  Christians.  They  begin  with  the 
individual  Christian.  Before  baptism  he  is  expected 
to  read  the  life  of  Christ  as  recorded  in  one  or 
more  of  the  Gospels  and  to  be  so  familiar  with  the 
facts  as  to  be  able  to  stand  an  examination.  Many 
a  Korean,  especially  among  the  women,  has  got  a 
start  in  education  because  of  this  requirement,  for 
when  a  person  cannot  read  he  must  necessarily 
learn  to  do  so  in  order  to  prepare  for  this^  exami- 
nation. I  believe  that  this  requirement  of  reading 
the  Gospels  has  been  one  of  the  primary  factors  in 
raising  the  percentage  of  literacy  among  the  Ko- 

13 


rean  Christians  to  a  much  higher  level  than  is  the 
case  in  any  other  area  of  Korean  society.  I  re- 
member well  the  case  of  an  old  man  seventy-two 
years  of  age  who,  ignorant  of  letters  and  feeble 
with  advanced  age,  learned  to  read  the  native 
script  in  order  to  be  able  to  peruse  the  Bible  for 
himself. 

The  Bible  has  been  made  the  central  book  in  the 
training  and  equipment  of  the  laity  of  the  Korean 
church.  For  this  purpose  Bible  Classes  and  insti- 
tutes have  been  held  continuously  throughout  Korea 
for  many  years.  On  these  occasions  the  officiary 
of  the  local  churches  have  withdrawn  themselves 
from  their  usual  vocations  and  given  themselves 
ten  hours  a  day  for  a  week  or  ten  days  to  an  inten- 
sive study  of  the  Bible.  Thus  they  have  sought 
the  ^proper  training  for  their  responsibilities  and 
have  entered  upon  their  official  duties  in  the  local 
churches  moved  not  only  by  impulses  growing  out 
of  the  local  demands,  but  also  animated  and  pene- 
trated by  a  spirit  which  comes  from  being  saturated 
with  the  Word  of  God.  It  is,  therefore,  not  sur- 
prising that  the  rank  and  file  of  the  membership  in 
the  church  in  Korea  constitute  a  strong,  evangelis- 
tic agency. 

The  Bible  has  played  a  large  part  in  the  training 
of  the  native  ministry.  It  is  the  central  text-book 
in  our  theological  schools.  An  instance  from  per- 
sonal experience  will  illustrate  the  position  of  the 
Bible  in  theological  instruction.  It  was  the  writer's 
privilege  to  teach  Systematic  Theology  in  the  the- 
ological school  of  his  mission.  The  time  came 
when  we  wished  to  give  instruction  to  our  theolog- 
ical students  in  theism.  The  great  modern  writers 
of  the  West  on  that  theme,  Bowne,  Flint,  Shedd, 
Pope,  Miley,  Curtis,  Hodge,  and  Clarke,  were  all 
studied  and  many  valuable  things  obtained,'  but 
they  did  not  fit  our  situation,  for  they  were  not  free 
from  the  difficulty  which  the  Christian  instructor  of 

14 


Asiatics  found  himself  confronted  with  in  all  our 
Western  statements  of  theology.  This  difificulty  is 
a  fundamental  one,  for  these  statements  are  pro- 
jected from  the  standpoint  of  the  philosophical 
doubt,  the  intellectual  situation  which  prevails  only 
in  Western  lands.  The  Korean  knows,  nothing 
about  these  philosophical  doubts  and  intellectual 
debates.  What  he  wants  to  know  is:  "What's 
wrongr  with  idolatry  ?  What's  the  matter  with  po- 
lytheism? Why  is  it  wrong  for  a  man  to  own 
slaves  and  have  three  wives?"  Now  these  are 
practical  difficulties  from  which  the  West  has  long 
ago  been  swept  because  of  its  development  in 
Christian  civilization,  and  the  theological  books  of 
our  day  do  not  discuss  them.  The  most  convinc- 
ing and  positive  statements  on  these  points  are 
found  in  the  messages  of  Moses  and  the  Law,  in 
Isaiah  and  the  Prophets,  which  are  made  clear  and 
explicit  in  the  teachings  in  the  Gospels,  and  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  It  is  therefore  not  surpris- 
ing that  it  was  these  books  of  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testament  that  were  placed  in  the  hands^  of  the 
Korean  students  for  the  ministry  in  order  that  they 
might  acquire  a  knowledge  of  theism  which  would 
be  intelligible  to  them  from  their  own  standpoint. 

I  would  not  be  understood  as  claiming  that  there 
is  no  value  in  the  great  messages  that  have  been 
delivered  by  the  modern  fathers  of  our  Western 
church,  but  their  writings,  because  of  racial  and 
civilizational  limitations,  necessarily  bear  the  stamp 
of  a  kind  of  theological  provincialism  and  do  not 
quite  occupy,  in  the  Korean  church,  the  place  of 
primacy  which  is  accorded  them  in  the  West.  That 
place  is  filled  by  only  one  book — the  Bible. 

The  Bible  in  the  Sunday  School  in  Korea 

The  eager  thirst  of  the  Korean  Christians  for  a 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  precipitated  us  into  certain 
problems   in  the   organization   of    Sunday-school 

15 


work.  The  Sunday  school  first  came  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Koreans  as  a  school  for  the  study  of  the 
Bible.  This  drew  to  it  in  the  earlier  years  a  very 
large  attendance  of  adults,  with  a  very  small  at- 
tendance of  children ;  as  father  and  mother  both 
desired  to  be  present  when  the  Bible  was  taught, 
the  natural  thing  was  to  leave  the  children  at  home 
to  take  care  of  the  house.  It  became  necessary,  in 
some  places,  to  organize  schools  for  the  children 
distinct  from  those  for  the  adults.  With  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Sunday-school  idea  this  difficulty 
found  solution  and  to-day  the  Sunday  schools  in 
Korea  have  both  the  adult  and  the  child  elements  rep- 
resented in  due  proportion.  It  is  still  true,  how- 
ever, that  to  a  larger  degree  than  is  the  case  in 
America  the  adult  Christians  are  attendant  upon 
the  Sunday  school. 

Another  difficulty  grew  out  of  the  lesson  and  its 
treatment.  In  the  earlier  years  there  was  a  ques- 
tion in  the  minds  of  the  missionaries  as  to  the 
adaptability  of  the  International  Sunday-school  les- 
son system,  and  in  some  mission  stations  indepen- 
dent courses  more  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  Ko- 
reans than  those  offered  by  the  great  world-wide 
system  of  study  were  used.  In  the  days  before  we 
had  the  entire  Bible  in  Korea  there  would  be  sec- 
tions in  the  International  system  for  which  we  had 
no  text  available  for  universal  use  among  our  peo- 
ple. This  condition  has  now  passed  away  with  the 
completion  of  the  work  of  Bible  translation. 

Much  attention  is  paid  in  Korea  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Sunday  school  along  the  best  lines  in- 
dicated by  the  experience  and  wisdom  of  Sunday- 
school  workers.  The  World  Sunday  School  Asso- 
ciation has  been  able  to  relate  itself  in  a  most  help- 
ful manner  to  the  work  in  Korea  at  this  point. 
Again  a  difficulty  strikes  us,  however,  between  the 
situation  in  Korea  and  that  which  prevails  in  Ameri- 
ca.   The  Bible  text  and  the  direct  study  of  it,  rather 

16 


than  the  study  of  explanatory  matter,  occupy  a 
larger  part  in  the  thought  and  time  of  the  Sunday 
school  in  Korea  than  is  the  case  in  America. 
There  is  not  the  multiplicity  of  helps,  the  almost 
confusing  variety  of  aids,  placed  at  the  service  of 
the  Korean  Christian  which  is  the  case  here  in  Amer- 
ica. As  a  result  the  younger  generation  in  Korea 
now  in  training  in  our  Sunday  schools  bids  fair  to 
follow  in  the  steps  of  its  predecessor  in  knowing 
more  of  the  Bible  than  us,  though  it  may  know  less 
about  the  Bible. 

The  Attitude  of  the  Korean  Toward  the  Bible 

Possibly  we  can  best  indicate  this  by  an  incident 
which  happened  last  year  in  Korea  and  is  related 
in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  National  Bible  Society 
of  Scotland : 

**  A  Korean  lady  of  wealth,  gowned  in  shining 
linen  and  soft  silk,  stopped  her  sedan  chair  outside 
a  book-store  in  An  Dong.  A  friend  stopped,  to 
speak  with  her,  and  she  said :  *  I  have  just  been  buy- 
ing some  books  to  take  home  with  me  to  give  away 
to  my  unbelieving  neighbors.'  *  Where  are  they  ? ' 
asked  her  friend.  '  In  the  chair,'  was  the  reply. 
And  one  of  the  chair  coolies,  with  a  very  disgusted 
look  upon  his  face,  raised  the  chair  curtain,  and  be- 
hold !  the  chair  was  packed  full  of  St.  Mark's  Gos- 
pel, tracts,  and  hymn  books.  '  But,'  said  her  friend, 
the  chair  is  full,  you  cannot  get  in !  *  *  That's  no 
matter,'  she  laughed;  *  it  is  only  thirty  li  [ten 
miles]  and  I  can  walk.'  The  chair  coolies  were 
bidden  to  take  up  the  chair,  and  they  did  so  rather 
gruntingly,  and  the  lady  followed,  walking  with  her 
woman-servant,  her  face  beaming  with  pleasure,  and 
smiling  '  Good-by.'  Only  those  who  know  what 
riding  in  a  chair  stands  for  among  Korean  women 
can  appreciate  the  sacrifice  in  this  story.  'To leave 
the  city  of  An  Dong  on  foot  when  she  might  ride ! ' 
exclaimed  a  bystander." 

17 


We  have  already  indicated  in  the  course  of  this 
discussion  the  reverence  and  love  of  the  Korean  for 
the  Bible.  One  interesting  development  has  been 
that  it  has  introduced  a  modification  in  the  Korean 
costume.  The  old  Korean  dress  had  no  pocket  in 
it.  The  Korean  desired  to  carry  his  Bible  with  him 
wherever  he  went.  At  first  he  used  to  carry  it,  with 
his  hymn  book,  in  a  napkin,  which  he  held  in  his  hand 
or  slung  over  his  shoulders.  Influenced  by  the 
pockets  of  European  costumes,  the  Korean  Chris- 
tian extemporized  a  pocket  in  his  jacket  to  contain 
the  pocket  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  which 
was  early  produced  by  the  Bible  Societies.  Thus 
was  the  first  pocket  permanently  introduced  into  the 
Korean  costume  and  was  popularly  known  as  the 
*'  Bible  pocket." 

There  are  many  instances  of  an  inspiring  nature 
of  the  influence  which  the  reading  of  the  Bible  has 
had  over  the  life  of  the  individual  Christian.  Act- 
ing out  literally  the  instructions  contained  in  its 
pages,  the  Koreans  have  been  led  to  make  apostolic 
revelations  of  devotion  and  sacrifice.  Property, 
time,  and  life  have  been  freely  laid  upon  the  altar. 

Possibly  I  can  best  close  this  article  with  an  in- 
stance which  goes  to  the  very  heart  of  the  matter 
and  shows  how  unerringly  the  Koreans  discovered 
the  difference  between  the  Roman  and  Evangelical 
forms  of  Christianity,  for,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
educated  Korean,  Evangelical  Christianity,  because 
of  its  free  circulation  of  the  Bible,  is  much  more 
convincing  and  acceptable  than  is  Roman  Catholi- 
cism. 

One  day  two  young  men  came  to  the  mission 
house  asking  to  be  instructed  in  the  tenets  of  Chris- 
tianity. I  handed  them  a  copy  of  the  Bible  in  Chi- 
nese, explained  its  arrangement  and  its  general 
character,  and  asked  them  to  read  it.  They  left 
me  and  were  gone  for  two  weeks.  When  they  re- 
turned they  had  a  long  list  of  questions,  many  of 

18 


them  of  a  most  searching  and  interesting  character. 
Among  these  questions  was  this :  "  We  hear  that 
Christianity  exists  in  two  forms,  the  old  [Roman] 
form  and  the  new  [Evangelical]  form.  What  is  the 
difference  between  these  two  ? "  I  replied:  "  I  am 
not  a  follower  of  Roman  Christianity,  therefore  any 
statement  which  I  might  make  concerning  it  would 
necessarily  be  open  to  the  charge  of  being  preju- 
diced, and  possibly  not  fair.  I  can  speak  authori- 
tatively on  Evangelical  Christianity  and  will  tell 
you  fully  the  truth  as  we  hold  it.  But  in  discussing 
the  other  form  my  tendency  would  be  to  point  out 
the  things  which  I  believe  to  be  wrong  in  Roman- 
ism, and  to  fail  to  emphasize  in  its  favor  the  things 
which  are  right.  I  would  prefer  that  you  should 
go  to  the  Roman  Catholic  missionary,  who  is  my 
neighbor,  and  put  to  him  the  same  question  you 
have  put  to  me.  When  you  have  the  two  statements 
before  you  then  you  can  judge  for  yourself  which 
is  more  nearly  in  accordance  with  truth." 

The  young  men  left  me  and  did  not  return  until 
a  month  had  passed.  They  reported  that  they  had 
visited  my  Roman  Catholic  neighbor  and  had  held 
many  conversations  with  him.  Their  general  im- 
pression was  that  there  were  many  resemblances,  as 
well  as  vital  differences,  between  the  Roman  and 
Evangelical  forms  of  Christianity.  At  two  points 
especially  they  noted  a  wide  divergence. 

The  first  was  in  the  spirit  manifested.  They  had 
asked  the  Roman  Catholic  father  his  opinion  of 
Evangelical  Christianity,  and  he  had  immediately 
become  very  earnest  in  denouncing  it,  cautioning 
them,  as  they  valued  their  eternal  salvation  to  re- 
frain from  having  any  dealings  with  the  Evangeli- 
cal Christians.  This  stood  in  such  direct  contrast 
with  the  attitude  they  had  met  on  our  side,  where 
we  had  refrained  from  attempting  to  prejudice  them 
against  a  contrary  view,  that  they  felt  that  Roman- 
ism must  be  of  a  perverse  spirit  so  to  express  itself. 

19 


The  other  difficulty  grew  out  of  their  request  for 
a  copy  of  the  Bible.  The  Catholic  missionary  ac- 
knowledged that  they  did  have  a  Bible,  but  stated 
that  it  was  of  such  an  intricate  and  difficult  charac- 
ter that  it  was  quite  beyond  them  to  understand  it, 
and  that  the  church  reserved  it  for  the  use  of  the 
priests,  who  alone  were  competent  to  make  known 
its  contents  to  the  people.  This  refusal  greatly  sur- 
prised them  as  Confucianists.  They  said  it  was  so 
utterly  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  true  scholarship  and 
religion.  Confucianism,  a  religion  based  on  sacred 
books,  compelled  all  its  followers  to  study  and 
know  its  sacred  books.  Evangelical  Christianity, 
on  their  first  approach,  had  gladly  and  unreservedly 
placed  its  sacred  books  in  their  hands  for  examina- 
tion. There  must  be  something  wrong,  therefore, 
with  the  sacred  books  of  Romanism,  or  elsp  with 
Romanism  itself,  that  the  authorities  of  the  church 
should  find  it  necessary  to  withhold  the  Bible  from 
its  people.  As  a  result  these  young  men  became 
earnest  Evangelical  Christians. 

The  incident  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  processes 
of  the  Korean  mind,  and  it  may  afEord  an  explana- 
tion of  the  fact  that  while  Romanism  entered  Korea 
a  half  century  before  the  coming  of  the  Evangelical 
missionaries,  to-day  its  following  is  only  about 
twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  entire  Christian  popula- 
tion. The  movement  of  the  Koreans  is  into  Evan- 
gelical Christianity,  rather  than  toward  Romanism, 
and  undoubtedly  the  widespread  use  of  the  Bible  is 
one  of  the  determining  factors  in  producing  this 
result. 

r  8, 16:  8m.  20 


CENTENNIAL  PAMPHLETS 


SMALL   QUARTO     (7>^x8|^) 

1  The  Bible,  the  Book  of  Mankind,  by  Prof.  B.  B. 

Warfield,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

2  The  Bible  in  Europe,  by  Prof.  A.  Kuyper,  D.D., 

LL.D.,  of  Holland. 

3  The  Greek  Testament,  The  Ecumenical  Patriarch 

of  Constantinople  with  the  collaboration  of  the  Bishop 
of  Nicea,  the  Bishop  of  Sardis  and  the  Bishop  of 
Seleucia. 

4  The  Hebrew  Bible,  by  Rev.  S.  B.  Rohold,  F.R.G.S., 

of  Toronto. 

5  The  Birthplace  of  the  Bible  Society,  and  other  his- 

torical papers. 
Centennial  Bulletins .    To  appear  at  intervals  with  in- 
formation about  Centennial  preparations  and  plans. 

SMALL  OCTAVO     (Sx7X) 

10  The  Bible  Among  the  Nations,  by  Rev.  Henry  Otis 

Dwight,  LL.D. 

11  Around  the  World  for  the  Centennial,  illustrated, 

by  Rev.  William  Ingraham  Haven,  D.D. 

12  The  American  Bible  Society  in  China,  by  Rev. 

John  R.  Hykes,  D.D. 

13  The  Bible  in  Korea,  by  Rev.  George  Heber  Jones,  D.D. 

14  The  Bible  in  the  Life  of  the  Indians  of  the  United 

States,  by  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Moflfett,  D.D. 

15  The  Bible  in  Brazil,  by  Rev.  Hugh  C.  Tucker. 

16  Mr.  Penzotti's  Autobiography. 

17  Bible  Work  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 

18  A  Quarter  Century  in  Siam. 

19  A  List  of  Grants-in-Aid  in  India. 


Hin^le  copies  of  these  pamphlets  may  be  had,  postpaid,  for 
.'»  cents  each;  in  quantities  of  10  or  more  at  3  cents  each. 

Order  from  »   *       »»• 

The  Secretaries,  American   Bible  Society,  Astor   riace. 
New  York  City,  or  from  Agency  Secretaries. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OfVTVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

1X>S  ANG£L£S 


